U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,337,641, 5,617,909 and 5,768,966, which are hereby incorporated by reference, disclose improved jigs and fixtures for aligning, guiding and or holding a workpiece as it is worked, for example as it is cut, drilled or routed. While the jigs and fixtures disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,337,641, 5,617,909 and 5,768,966 represent a significant advance in the art, room still exists for improvement, particularly in the following respects.
One problem is with the fit of the stop in the T-slot of typical jig and fixture systems. It is typical that the stops available do not lock securely in the T-slot. There is typically a slight variation in the extrusions which compromises the fit. In addition, there is no stop base that fits a variety of different width T-slots. Thus, there is no stop that works with the different extrusions that are on the market.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,337,641 teaches that the stop can be bolted in the down position, but this requires threading a bolt through the stop into the base, which is tedious. This is necessary, for example, when cutting a mitered board with the pointed side against the fence. Typical stops available are not designed to allow cutting a miter with either the point in or the point out with out any manipulation.
At times, it is necessary to place a board under the stop, i.e., between the table surface and the stop, for example, when using a moveable backer board underneath a workpiece being drilled on a drill press table. This can interfere with the operation of typical available stops. In addition, typical stops require that they be manually picked up to the standby position to place the board under them.
It is also sometimes useful to place a moveable zero clearance board behind the stop, i.e., between the stop and the fence, on a radial or miter saw. This pushes the stop forward or prevents it from swinging all of the way down in typical stops, which interferes with the use of the stop.
Other problems are accommodating different fence heights, how measurements are made using measuring tapes provided on the track, and track mounting to boards or miter guide slots.